Miraz Jordan Profile Photo

Miraz Jordan

I love simplicity and silence. I enjoy taking photos of birds. I also enjoy drinking tea — green, white, yellow, oolong. I live at Waikawa Beach in New Zealand, which I love, and strive to be an actively decent human being. Apparently the bizarre is normal now. Now 69, I'm super happy to be getting old — it means I'm not dead yet! 100% human (she / her). I joined the MB community on 05 January 2018. Follow me on Micro.Blog at https://micro.blog/miraz.

  • Waikawa Beach rain. @JeremyWxBaker

    Waikawa Beach rain. Outside view of trees through a rainy window.

  • Our Whangārei friends have a very pleasant and comfortable place but their Internet is really poor. So sick of photos taking forever to load. Deb's done a few Zoom calls — with difficulty. I need to stay offline while she does that.

    I'm looking forward to our fast Internet back at Waikawa Beach.

  • It was a very unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach. My friend Stephen Betts found this injured bird on the beach and took it to Wellington Zoo for care. 🐦

    Sad looking mid-size brown bird on the beach.
    Mid-size brown bird on lawn.

    Photos by Stephen Betts and used with permission.

    The zoo updated:

    the albatross is bright this morning and currently stable. It is indeed a light mantled sooty albatross.

    Toroa pango | Light Mantled Sooty Albatross.

  • I might have seen my first aurora — rather subtle, but the iPhone brought out the colours. Thanks to Ian Griffin's tipoff post from last night. This was around 5 am at Waikawa Beach, north of Wellington.

    // @iangriffin@mastodon.nz

    Subtle Aurora.
    Aurora reds.
    Aurora forecast southern hemisphere shows activity south of New Zealand.

  • Today's beach find was a first for me: a 2 metre Blue shark (Prionace glauca). So much bigger than the sharks that usually wash up on Waikawa Beach.

    Large dead shark with white belly and blue upper.

    Also known as the blue whaler or blue pointer, the blue shark’s upper body is a striking cobalt blue and the underside is bright white. Their large black eyes have a protective membrane to shield it from struggling prey.

    Via: Summer Series Week 2: Sharks of summer | NIWA.

    Close up on the mouth showing many sharp teeth.
  • Agglomerated pink shells.

    A Google image search led me to Megabalanus, and then I found my way to Pink Barnacles (Beach Barnacles Of New Zealand) · iNaturalist NZ.

    Of course I'd heard of barnacles but I had no idea that's what this is. It's not uncommon to find these on Waikawa Beach.

    See also Beloved Barnacles.

  • Today I attended a really interesting talk by Associate Professor Phil Battley, Zoology & Ecology Group, Massey University at the local Forest and Bird branch meeting.

    Red Knots … The Secrets they Hold

    Despite being the second-most numerous Arctic shorebird species to visit Aotearoa, the migrations of red knots / huahou to and from their Russian breeding grounds have been largely mysterious. …

    I haven't seen Red Knots at Waikawa Beach but they are found just up the road at the Manawatū Estuary.

    Forest and Bird talk on Red Knots - title slide shows the birds.
    Slide shows there are two subspecies and their flight paths to the Arctic.

  • It's been a whole week since I spotted an unusual visitor to Waikawa Beach and I assumed it had left. But today I again spotted the kōtuku white heron by the river and was able to get quite close. Such beautiful birds. 🐦

    Very large white bird on the riverbank with ducks in the water nearby.
    Very large white bird on the riverbank with neck folded and beak lifted a little.
    Very large white bird on the riverbank with beak open.
    Very large white bird on the riverbank with neck extended.

  • Something I love about Waikawa Beach …

    … is the wide open space, and lack of other people.

  • My day went awry in the best possible way. I cut short my bike ride to collect my Fuji X-T5 and take photos of a rare visitor to Waikawa Beach: a Kōtuku | White heron. 🐦

    Such amazing birds!

    Tall white bird stands tall beside a river.
    Pure white bird with sharp yellow beak and neck kinked flies across the image.
    Black shag in the river looks at the heron on the bank.
    Peekaboo!

  • Ohhhh, folks on the Waikawa Beach Facebook group have been posting spectacular aurora photos … and I'm away up north. Darn!

  • Around 0720 a fuel tanker rolled a few Km north of Waikawa Beach. In spite of detours, that effectively closed the road so traffic north and south has been a nightmare all day.

    It's taking Deb ~3.5 hours to get home from Wellington (a 1.25 hour trip) because of backed up traffic. Photo from FB.

    Photo of a tanker truck upside down.
    Screenshot of part of a Facebook post.

  • OK Pacific Wave Appreciation Society — some gentle Waikawa Beach waves to start the day. 🌊

  • This morning I joined a couple of other members of the Horowhenua branch of Forest and Bird to do a bird count at Waikawa Beach estuary. We don't have so many birds around at the moment, but along with the usuals we spotted a flock of maybe 60 white-fronted terns, and also 5 banded dotterels. 🙌🏼 🐦

  • A mere 29 Km (by road), 25 minute drive south of Waikawa Beach is Peka Peka Beach. Small waves at Peka Peka Beach with Kāpiti Island in the background. For the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊

    Small waves at Peka Peka Beach with Kāpiti Island in the background.

  • This item about Google Plus codes was really interesting: On the Navajo Nation, Accurate Mailing Addresses Save Lives.

    If you want to find your own Plus Code start with Technology - Plus Codes. It's very simple.

    For example, Hank Edwards Reserve at Waikawa Beach is at 846X+JF.

  • MB April Photo Challenge: windy 📷

    Sasha, tail flying, on a windy day at Waikawa Beach in August 2019.

    Black dog on the beach with fluffy tail flying in the wind.

  • Fun moment: distance between where I live now and where I was born: Distance Between Cities Places On Map Distance Calculator:

    18,759 km or 11,656 miles

    Thanks to @crossingthethreshold.

    Map with pointers at London, England and Waikawa Beach, Aotearoa.

  • Waikawa Beach, 20 March 2024. The Pacific Wave Appreciation Society appreciates even the smallest of waves. 🌊

    A calm seashore with only tiny waves.

  • Waikawa river mouth shines in the early morning.

    Pretty river mouth at Waikawa Beach.

  • In 2 days time I will be speaking to our local District Council for no more than 5 minutes on an incredibly divisive local topic: vehicle access to Waikawa Beach.

    The community has been polarised. I support a pedestrian-friendly beach where vehicles are not allowed. Refining my talk…

    Car stuck in river remnant.

  • Waves? What waves? 🐦

    Waikawa Beach, Aotearoa, for the Pacific Wave Appreciation Society. 🌊

  • West coast waves — at Waikawa Beach in Horowhenua in Aotearoa.

    See Jean’s west coast waves, North America.

  • Blokart on the beach.

    First time for everything: this Blokart had come up from Ōtaki. I haven't seen one on Waikawa Beach before.

  • This is super interesting (Waikawa Beach has a terrible erosion problem in one particular spot) — Cyclone Gabrielle: Parts of East Coast lost 10 metres of shoreline (my emphasis):

    "Commercially, they've been operating these very high resolution satellites for about the last 20 years, but it's probably only been over the last four or five years that the cost has come down, and the accessibility got to the point where you can order an image on your phone... or you can actually pay a little bit more and task a satellite to be over your beach at a particular time and take an image."

    He said it cost academic buyers about $20 per square kilometre. The higher the resolution, the higher the cost, but it was a gamechanger for scientific research, he said.

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